Discovered this magical blog from Cape Town...and immediately booked an appointment for that awesome first-hair-cut-in-six-months at The Lobby. Can't wait.
Trying to book a ticket from Kinshasa to Accra, Ghana is way more difficult than one would expect. Flying East in order to fly West. Overnight stays. Tight connections on tiny airplanes in tiny Togolese airports with stops in Libreville and Lagos along the way. I am convincing myself that a little accidental overnight due to a missed flight in Lomé would be just delightful...right?
Still keeping tabs on Goma - now via the Menno-chain, thanks so the Tweets of Michael J. Sharp who is out East and sending out 140-word updates via the interwebs. (Don't worry, Jason Stearns, you are still Mama Congo's main subject of Congo-expert-adoration.)
 | ||
| Photo from Al Jazeera English. Waiting to cross the border from Goma to Rwanda. |
The rhume is hitting TASOK hard. We're all hacking and coughing and sounding just horrible. Students, babies, mamas, papas, and even the nurse! (My boss definitely told me I sound "consumptive" yesterday.) I'm thinking some of this sounds perfect:
And finally, I keep coming back to this article and accompanying photographs of the 100-year-old artist Gisèle d’Ailly van Waterschoot van der Gracht. Her story is fascinating. And her home in Amsterdam...well...
 | ||
| Image from Freunde von Freunden. Go to this lovely site for more photos that feature interactive descriptions of some of the incredible items in this home. |
Sarah's List:
Surely you've seen this, but just in case you haven't here's what happens when Africans start caring about Europeans: Radi-Aid. Wish I would have recorded Tchic and Mama Youyou's reaction to watching this. Their laughs would have gone viral too.
 |
| From AfricaforNorway.no |
Who knew the light microscope could make art. Nikon's Small World Competition. These winners are pretty amazing. I've always wondered what the blood-brain barrier in a live zebrafish embryo looked like.
 |
| The blood-brain barrier in a live zebrafish embryo, by Jennifer Peters, et al. |
Friend of a friend makes a beautiful film. See it. Donate. Ananse's never looked so good.
Finally an expensive city list that includes us. Even if we're called "Kinshaa." You mean I could save money living in New York City or Seoul, but they're probably cheaper and have great modern conveniences. What's the fun in that?
And here's a list DRC didn't make. Shocking. The Where-to-be-Born Index. Ah, to be a white man born in the United States in 1930. Or a baby born in Switzerland in 2013.
 |
| From the Economist, Nov. 2012. |
In honor of the end of NaNoWriMo, check out this competition for the worst opening line of a novel.
From the limbs of ancient live oaks moccasins hung like fat black sausages — which are sometimes called boudinnoir, black pudding or blood pudding, though why anyone would refer to a sausage as pudding is hard to understand and it is even more difficult to divine why a person would knowingly eat something made from dried blood in the first place — but be that as it may, our tale is of voodoo and foul murder, not disgusting food.
- Jack Barry, Shelby, NC
- Jack Barry, Shelby, NC
I do not splurge on things as a general rule (other than some fancy mustard now and again or a good bottle of bourbon) but I have learned the value of a good hair cut - and the time in the chair being pampered is wonderful. That place looks great! Enjoy!
ReplyDelete